What high school game are you going to?

[SacFalcFan]

I will be at etowah vs wheeler. Christian Harris is on etowah and i was told there are a few freshman to go check out. What game as you guys going to and why?

[Billy Ocean]

Perhaps this isn't the appropriate thread, but could someone explain or point me towards a link that describes the power and political dynamics of Valdosta and Lowndes, especially as to how Lowndes was able to emerge given the historical dominance of Valdosta?

[SacFalcFan]

Perhaps this isn't the appropriate thread, but could someone explain or point me towards a link that describes the power and political dynamics of Valdosta and Lowndes, especially as to how Lowndes was able to emerge given the historical dominance of Valdosta?

the two people who could imo are kingjamez and kicker jesus and they are most likely heading to the valdosta game right now.

[kicker_jesus]

the two people who could imo are kingjamez and kicker jesus and they are most likely heading to the valdosta game right now.

I am actually just about to head to the game but will see if I can dig up an article or two for you later, Billy. Last time I talked with kingjamez he had a change of plans and was heading up to Athens for the UGA/UT game and would not be going to the Lowndes/Valdosta game so he might stop in here later...also, he might be able to get his hands on a few articles since he writes for the college paper down here. I will be able to offer a first-hand perspective since I was part of the Lowndes team that beat Valdosta for the first time in 12 years and has since beat Valdosta 6 years in a row. Do you have some specific questions that you would like for me to answer?

Edited October 8, 2010 by kicker_jesus

[Billy Ocean]

I am actually just about to head to the game but will see if I can dig up an article or two for you later, Billy. Last time I talked with kingjamez he had a change of plans and was heading up to Athens for the UGA/UT game and would not be going to the Lowndes/Valdosta game so he might stop in here later...also, he might be able to get his hands on a few articles since he writes for the college paper down here. I will be able to offer a first-hand perspective since I was part of the Lowndes team that beat Valdosta for the first time in 12 years and has since beat Valdosta 6 years in a row. Do you have some specific questions that you would like for me to answer?

Not really, just curious as to how the power dynamic shifted - I imagine political treachery and monied interests, but I'm guessing it won't turn out to be that provocative.

For starters though, how do they determine which kids go to which school - is their "recruiting" of middle school kids or anything unsavory like that?

By all means get to the game though, I can wait til later on the articles. Let me know how Rome and Mitchell look.

Thanks and good luck.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Billy Ocean

[SacFalcFan]

hey kicker.. i know you are gone now, but here is some info on a visitor to the game you are going to tonight:

Coach Lakatos will be at the Lowndes vs. Valdosta game to see WR/DB Malcolm Mitchell and TE Jay Rome from Valdosta. He also will have his eyes on DB Geraldo Orta and 2012 ATH Josh Clemons from Lowndes.

[kicker_jesus]

hey kicker.. i know you are gone now, but here is some info on a visitor to the game you are going to tonight:

Coach Lakatos will be at the Lowndes vs. Valdosta game to see WR/DB Malcolm Mitchell and TE Jay Rome from Valdosta. He also will have his eyes on DB Geraldo Orta and 2012 ATH Josh Clemons from Lowndes.

I am down on the Lowndes sideline and he is not here, but I think I see him across the field standing with some other coaches...I will tell him to get his act together if he comes to our sideline

[TyroneDawg]

I am down on the Lowndes sideline and he is not here, but I think I see him across the field standing with some other coaches...I will tell him to get his act together if he comes to our sideline

Coach Lilly was supposed to be at the game as well.

[Threepac Daddy]

all my local teams are away and my alma mater is over 90 mins away. peaked at an inning of braves ball and watch them suck more for 10 mins, god that team is awful

[Carter]

all my local teams are away and my alma mater is over 90 mins away. peaked at an inning of braves ball and watch them suck more for 10 mins, god that team is awful

They got stuck in slump mode. Not playing well at all.

High school football sucks out here where I live, but people still love it.

[SacFalcFan]

Etowah dominated Wheeler 38 to 0 to go 6-1 with a close loss to kell as our lone defeat. We have Woodstock up and will be playing marietta and lassiter.

[kicker_jesus]

Lowndes won 24-17 to make it 7 in a row over Valdosta...been a long day so I will do a more thorough write up tomorrow but Mitchell was as good as advertised, Rome had a pretty quiet night and Kenneth Durden from Lowndes showed some great hands on both sides of the ball. Didn't see either Coach Lakatos or Coach Lily but they were more than likely on the opposite side of the field from where I was standing.

[kingjamez]

Went to the game. Was very impressed with Mitchell and Durden. I can see the huge, star potential out of Jay Rome and Josh Clemsons though. Unbelievable atmosphere.

[Threepac Daddy]

Etowah dominated Wheeler 38 to 0 to go 6-1 with a close loss to kell as our lone defeat. We have Woodstock up and will be playing marietta and lassiter.

etowah is really good the past few seasons. the lassiter is going to be a good one, where do they play at for that game.

[Testasparo]

I stopped paying attention to high school ball once I left South Gwinnett, but apparently they're pretty decent. That move to the spread no-huddle has finally started to pay off as they're putting up some huge points.

Still losing to freaking Brookwood though, just like always

Edited October 9, 2010 by Testasparo

[achilles return]

I stopped paying attention to high school ball once I left South Gwinnett, but apparently they're pretty decent. That move to the spread no-huddle has finally started to pay off as they're putting up some huge points.

Still losing to freaking Brookwood though, just like always

And will lose to Grayson.

[kicker_jesus]

I stopped paying attention to high school ball once I left South Gwinnett, but apparently they're pretty decent. That move to the spread no-huddle has finally started to pay off as they're putting up some huge points.

Still losing to freaking Brookwood though, just like always

And already lost to Lowndes

[kicker_jesus]

Went to the game. Was very impressed with Mitchell and Durden. I can see the huge, star potential out of Jay Rome and Josh Clemsons though. Unbelievable atmosphere.

Yep, this pretty much sums it up. This was a great game to watch and literally came down to the final few seconds before the outcome was decided. Lowndes is very young on the OL and it showed tonight...Valdosta was in the backfield most of the night and forced some key turnovers that would have otherwise allowed Lowndes to blow this game wide-open. MM was definitely as good as advertised...he runs very smooth routes as a WR and that 4.2 forty speed he has scared our secondary to death most of the game. MM ended up with 12 catches for 142 yards and a TD...he played some DB, but not much, b/c the Valdosta coaches were afraid of tiring him out considering how much time of possession Lowndes was using thanks to their Wing-T offense. I think MM will contribute early and often at the next level...he is just that good of a player. Jay Rome is a big target who has exceptional hands...he didn't make a lot of noise in the game as he was asked to block more than usual thanks to the fact that Lowndes likes to have 5 DL rush the QB quite often. The one knock against Jay has always been that he doesn't like contact and I think that manifested itself some early in the night. He is going to be a great TE at the next level, but I personally think he needs to redshirt his FR year to help him learn how to block better and to get stronger. Kenneth Durden of Lowndes scored the first points of the ballgame on a 60 yard bomb that he caught between 2 defenders. He showed great hands on both sides of the ball as he finished with 3 catches for a 112 yards and 1 TD and also had an interception on Defense along with 3 or 4 pass break-ups. He is a legit D-1 prospect and made plays that caused him to stand out in a secondary loaded with D-1 talent. LB Josh Clemons had a solid game especially considering that he spent most of his time covering WR's/TE's b/c of the spread offense Valdosta runs. All-in-all it was a great game and definitely lived up to it's billing as a Winnersville Classic.

Billy Ocean, I will respond to your earlier post later today.

[SacFalcFan]

etowah is really good the past few seasons. the lassiter is going to be a good one, where do they play at for that game.

yep since we got Coach Stewart from Parkview we haven't missed the playoffs and been #1 a few times. Etowah played lassiter at Etowah. I am interested in seeing Lassiter's qb against our defense which has dominated this year.

[Threepac Daddy]

yep since we got Coach Stewart from Parkview we haven't missed the playoffs and been #1 a few times. Etowah played lassiter at Etowah. I am interested in seeing Lassiter's qb against our defense which has dominated this year.

at etowah huh might hope on 20 east and catch the game depending where my alma mater is playing. hows the parking at etowah

[SacFalcFan]

at etowah huh might hope on 20 east and catch the game depending where my alma mater is playing. hows the parking at etowah

plenty of parking.

[Threepac Daddy]

plenty of parking.

might go then depending on my high school team. its one of those sub region flex games.

[kicker_jesus]

Not really, just curious as to how the power dynamic shifted - I imagine political treachery and monied interests, but I'm guessing it won't turn out to be that provocative.

For starters though, how do they determine which kids go to which school - is their "recruiting" of middle school kids or anything unsavory like that?

By all means get to the game though, I can wait til later on the articles. Let me know how Rome and Mitchell look.

Thanks and good luck.

Billy Ocean, sorry that it has taken me so long to respond...there have been a multitude of things going on that have prevented me from getting on the computer much the past few days. Now, to try and answer your questions:

1) How do they determine which kids go to which school?

- That is determined by the powers that be in Government, but this has been a hot-topic down here for quite a while. A lot of people are lobbying hard to get the zoning districts changed b/c Valdosta High is now 70% black students and Lowndes is 70% white students and a few people want those numbers to be closer to 50% at each school. Will there be any wholesale changes in the near future? I don't think so...too many people with a lot of money want things to remain the way that they are. Does recruiting go on? Not that I have ever seen or heard in recent years (even though Valdosta was notorious for doing it under Wright Bazemore).

2) How did the power shift from Valdosta to Lowndes?

- This really all had to do with coaching. Lowndes made a great move in the early '90s to hire Milt Miller from Worth County. Milt had led Worth County to 4 State Championship game appearances during his 15 year tenure (winning 1 of them). Also, when Milt was hired at Lowndes he told the powers that be that he would need 5 years to get us turned around and pointed in the right direction b/c he knew that he was going to have to overhaul both of our Middle School programs and get them running the Offense and Defense that he ran at Lowndes. Lowndes actually went 9-21 during Milt's first 3 years but then he led us to our first playoff appearance since 1986 in his 5th year at the helm. We went on to win a State Championship at Lowndes in 1999 (my Junior year) and he compiled a win/loss record of 79-39. We also beat Valdosta for the first time in 12 years during my Freshman year of high school, and that win provided the confidence that we needed to show us that we had caught up to Valdosta and could not only compete with them on a yearly basis, but also beat them. During Milt's time at the healm, Valdosta went through the unenviable task of trying to replace Coach Nick Hyder who had suddenly died of a heart-attack in 1996. The loss of Hyder nearly crippled the Valdosta program...Coach Mike O'Brien (who was on Hyder's staff) took over and led Valdosta to a State Championship in 1998 but most people just said that he won that game using the talent that had already been coached up by Hyder and they fired O'Brien in 2002 (even though he had won over 3/4's of the games he had coached in). Valdosta has changed coaches 3 times since they fired O'Brien and they are just now starting to take advantage of all of the talent that they have on their team now that Rance Gillespie is their coach.

I said all that to say this, most schools adopted the Valdosta model of how to run a great program so they are not light-years ahead of people like they once were. The loss of Coach Nick Hyder was a big contributing factor to the down-fall of the Valdosta program, but a lot more of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the powers-that-be at Valdosta for not realizing that everyone else has caught up to them in coaching philosophy and thinking that changing coaches like you change underwear will fix the problem. All of these factors have led for the majority of kids wanting to play for Lowndes instead of Valdosta now. If I didn't answer all of your questions, please let me know.

Edited October 10, 2010 by kicker_jesus

[Billy Ocean]

Billy Ocean, sorry that it has taken me so long to respond...there have been a multitude of things going on that have prevented me from getting on the computer much the past few days. Now, to try and answer your questions:

1) How do they determine which kids go to which school?

- That is determined by the powers that be in Government, but this has been a hot-topic down here for quite a while. A lot of people are lobbying hard to get the zoning districts changed b/c Valdosta High is now 70% black students and Lowndes is 70% white students and a few people want those numbers to be closer to 50% at each school. Will there be any wholesale changes in the near future? I don't think so...too many people with a lot of money want things to remain the way that they are. Does recruiting go on? Not that I have ever seen or heard in recent years (even though Valdosta was notorious for doing it under Wright Bazemore).

2) How did the power shift from Valdosta to Lowndes?

- This really all had to do with coaching. Lowndes made a great move in the early '90s to hire Milt Miller from Worth County. Milt had led Worth County to 4 State Championship game appearances during his 15 year tenure (winning 1 of them). Also, when Milt was hired at Lowndes he told the powers that be that he would need 5 years to get us turned around and pointed in the right direction b/c he knew that he was going to have to overhaul both of our Middle School programs and get them running the Offense and Defense that he ran at Lowndes. Lowndes actually went 9-21 during Milt's first 3 years but then he led us to our first playoff appearance since 1986 in his 5th year at the helm. We went on to win a State Championship at Lowndes in 1999 (my Junior year) and he compiled a win/loss record of 79-39. We also beat Valdosta for the first time in 12 years during my Freshman year of high school, and that win provided the confidence that we needed to show us that we had caught up to Valdosta and could not only compete with them on a yearly basis, but also beat them. During Milt's time at the healm, Valdosta went through the unenviable task of trying to replace Coach Nick Hyder who had suddenly died of a heart-attack in 1996. The loss of Hyder nearly crippled the Valdosta program...Coach Mike O'Brien (who was on Hyder's staff) took over and led Valdosta to a State Championship in 1998 but most people just said that he won that game using the talent that had already been coached up by Hyder and they fired O'Brien in 2002 (even though he had won over 3/4's of the games he had coached in). Valdosta has changed coaches 3 times since they fired O'Brien and they are just now starting to take advantage of all of the talent that they have on their team now that Rance Gillespie is their coach.

I said all that to say this, most schools adopted the Valdosta model of how to run a great program so they are not light-years ahead of people like they once were. The loss of Coach Nick Hyder was a big contributing factor to the down-fall of the Valdosta program, but a lot more of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the powers-that-be at Valdosta for not realizing that everyone else has caught up to them in coaching philosophy and thinking that changing coaches like you change underwear will fix the problem. All of these factors have led for the majority of kids wanting to play for Lowndes instead of Valdosta now. If I didn't answer all of your questions, please let me know.

Nah man don't sweat it, I haven't been online much the past 2 days either. I appreciate the detailed response. I met a girl at the beach while vacationing in Florida in the late mid '90s who was from Valdosta. At one point I was talking to her and she said something about her high school. I said something referring to how successful the football program was, and she said no, I go to the other high school. Before that I wasn't aware that Lowndes High even existed. So y'all have definitely come a long way since then. Kudos on that and congrats on Friday's win. At this point I have one more question, are the zoning districts pretty cut and dry - like you live on this side of the tracks or you have that zip code so you go here - or has there been gerrymandering? Again thanks for the great answers and good luck on the rest of the season and playoffs.

PS - Could you ask Lowndes' coach to stop discouraging his kids from signing with UGA?

Edited October 10, 2010 by Billy Ocean

[kicker_jesus]

Nah man don't sweat it, I haven't been online much the past 2 days either. I appreciate the detailed response. I met a girl at the beach while vacationing in Florida in the late mid '90s who was from Valdosta. At one point I was talking to her and she said something about her high school. I said something referring to how successful the football program was, and she said no, I go to the other high school. Before that I wasn't aware that Lowndes High even existed. So y'all have definitely come a long way since then. Kudos on that and congrats on Friday's win. At this point I have one more question, are the zoning districts pretty cut and dry - like you live on this side of the tracks or you have that zip code so you go here - or has there been gerrymandering? Again thanks for the great answers and good luck on the rest of the season and playoffs.

PS - Could you ask Lowndes' coach to stop discouraging his kids from signing with UGA?

Yeah, the zoning districts in Valdosta are pretty clearly defined. Everyone here knows which housing districts will cause you to go to which school, so people try to make calculated/educated decisions about where they want their kids to go to school before they purchase a house. I know that when I was in high school Lowndes used to accept a certain number of kids into the school that did not actually live in the County...the families of these kids had to pay something around $1,000 a year for their kids to be able to attend Lowndes, but I don't know if they still have this option available due to the sheer number of kids that are now enrolled at Lowndes (somewhere in excess of 3,000 students).

Man, I wish that Coach Mac would quit pushing our kids to FSU. With kids like Greg Reid, though, I can understand his reasoning...Greg needed to be close to home to help keep some form of accountability close-at-hand (Greg was a headache to deal with off the field). But, with high-character kids like Telvin Smith it didn't make any sense...Telvin could have gone to any college in the country and you wouldn't have had to worry about him getting into trouble b/c he is just not that kind of kid. We did have an OL, Ed Christian, go to Auburn last year, so maybe the kids are trying to step out and think on their own some. The real test case to see if things have changed or not will be 2012 LB Josh Clemons...he is really high on both UGA and UF right now, but as kingjamez said, you can not count out FSU. I go to church with an Assistant Head Coach at Lowndes and I am going to ask him about this when I can get him alone one day and see what he says about Coach Mac and his ties to FSU...actually, I talked to him a few years ago when Greg had decided to open up his recruitment and he was convinced that Greg was going to choose UGA so I am going to be interested to hear his take on things.